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User blog:Bronzedew/On Communication
THE ISSUES. From my observations, it would seem that Animal Jam is struggling to retain its older player base because of its ineffective communication with its playerbase, its recyclable updates, and its near-stagnant economy. I will suggest a possible solution that can make Feral stronger. But before we investigate the solution, we must understand the current problems of Animal Jam, WildWorks' best title. Firstly, WildWorks and its playerbase are poorly connected and therefore have poor communications with each other. Now, I don't know the inner workings of this company and its employees, so I cannot make a statement on its business practices or their soundness. Rather, I am arguing that it is difficult to directly communicate changes to the developers. For example, in Animal Jam, there's a purple question mark icon in Jamaa Township that you can use to suggest changes to the game. However, there's a limited amount of character space for suggestions. This means that potentially viable suggestions could be curtailed because they lack the detail needed to develop the idea enough to gain traction. Also, you never get an e-mail response or direct message from a developer or staff support responding to your suggestion personally. ''It doesn't have to be a "buddy-buddy" conversation, but it can be a situation where they send you a unique e-mail with a response to your suggestion. For example, if it were for a new item, a staff member could respond to you, stating something along the lines of "Your response has been mentioned to our staff and they are considering your request. Here's some feedback from our developers." I know that this would be nigh-impossible with so many players, but they could opt to only respond to well-developed suggestions instead of spam mail. Entering help tickets are awful, especially when it concerns finances, like paying a regularly charged membership fee. In short, this ''needs to change ''if Feral is going to be any better than its predecessors. Secondly, because WildWorks struggles to effectively communicate with its playerbase, its developments are stale and recyclable. By "recyclable", I mean that there are ''no REALLY new features: ''just rehashes of the old ones. New animals. New pets. New clothes. New adventures. New dens. New minigames. New games. Masterpieces and other user-suggested content. New animals. New pets. New adventures. New dens. New minigames. New games. Do you see what I mean? There's hardly any new developments in the game, and it shows. As a result, many players, even if they hold seniority status (have played the game for a long time, have a whole lot of items, have a friend network, etc.), are quitting the game because it has ''nothing new or enticing to offer them, especially in comparison to the game's competitors. '' Thirdly, because of these recyclable updates and a demographic naturally aging out of the game, we're left with a stagnant economy. There really isn't much to do, and even trading seems less scintillating with fewer people willing to risk investing because of duplication hacks and seemingly fixed values. Why bother investing when you'll never expect a return? Hopefully, Feral won't be the same, if we all push to let WildWorks know that there is a success alternative to turn to. '''THE REMEDY.' Let players have a direct place to vote on and discuss changes that will take place in Feral. Have the staff actually listen to, and appropriately moderate, the conversations. It's a simple premise, but difficult to execute, especially given the amount if players that may end up playing Feral in the future. Here are some examples on how this can be achieved in Feral, based on other games that I have played where the public has more of a voice in what takes place in the game. Let's take Old School RuneScape (OSRS) as an example of using a voting system to let the developers know what types of updates they'd like to see. Only registered users that have played for more than 25 hours and has a minimum total level of 300 can vote in polls. This is to deter bots and extra accounts from participating, allowing the polls to more accurately reflect who is actually "playing" the game. You can visit any of those poll booths throughout the game, but you're more likely to find them in urban areas. The polls will have questions about the game's mechanics and new content updates that the developers are considering adding. It could be something like a new dungeon, questline, or items, or it could be modifications to something that already exists. In order for a poll to be successful, it must have a supermajority of 75%+. You can even vote to "Skip the question" rather than answer yes or no if you're not sure. It won't show you the results until you've voted to prevent biases. This way, the developers really know what the playerbase wants, which in return, nets them more playtime, and in the long run, more sweet cash. Why not have multiple polling booth stations in the City Fera, the Trading Posts, or other major urban areas of the game? This way, players, like those in OSRS, who meet certain playtime, level, or skill achievements, can directly answer poll questions. This is one way to establish a direct line to the players of the game, their customers, and their interests. If you'd like to learn more about the polling system and how OldSchool RuneScape functions, check out this link: https://oldschool.runescape.wiki/w/Polls. Let's also take Flight Rising (FR) as an example of using a forum system for making suggestions. The players there, regardless of their experience, can make suggestions. However, if you're a newer user and aren't as familiar with how the game works and issues / interests people want addressed, your suggestions are less likely to gain traction and to be considered. On that note, this may give senior players an advantage over newer players, regardless of how sound they may be. You have to pick up those seniority votes to succeed. However, I do think that a forum should be accessible in-game to discuss relevant topics / current polls. Feral could use a forum system like this where popular posts could be investigated by staff members. The forums would be moderated to ensure that policies on safety / profanity, etc. can be enforced. I think that a synthesis of the two or only poll system would work well. What do y'all think? Category:Blog posts